This collection contains a variety of materials documenting Isabel Burgess's public and personal life, including her association with the Episcopal Church, awards, friends, travels, biographical files, work with the National Transportation Safety Board, and an oral history describing her time with the Heard Museum in Phoenix. This collection is arranged in seven series and alphabetically and chronologically within except as noted.
Identification:
FM MSS 127
Language:
Material in English
Repository:
Arizona State University Library. Greater Arizona Collection P.O. Box 871006 Tempe, AZ 85287-1006 Phone: (480) 965-4932 E-Mail: archives@asu.edu Questions? Ask An Archivist!
Biographical Note
Isabel Andrews Burgess was born in Cleveland, Ohio on April 3, 1912 to William Andrews and Alice Ball Andrews. She attended one year of college at Ohio and Mills College in Oakland, California and one year at Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where her major was art history. In 1939, Isabel married Richard Burgess, a certified public accountant and managing partner of Alexander Grant Company. They had three children, Richard B. Burgess, Thomas H. Burgess, and Susan (Burgess) Cordsen. They divorced in 1967.
Art and public service were abiding interests throughout her life. In Ohio, she was active in the League of Women Voters (LWV) and became a local chapter president. After the Burgess family relocated to Phoenix in 1948, she served as LWV secretary and president of the Visiting Nurses Services auxiliary. She also volunteered at the Heard Museum, where she was elected Secretary to the Board of Directors. Isabel's love for art and culture led to her involvement in other arts organizations. She was a founder of the Phoenix Arts Council, a member of the Phoenix Art Museum, and a charter member of the Phoenix Symphony Guild.
Isabel also became active in Republican politics and began a Republican Party Group within her district. This was a time of increased Republican Party activism and influence in Arizona. She became well known in Republican circles and was encouraged to run for the Arizona State Legislature in 1952. She served three terms in the Arizona State House of Representatives (1953-54, 1957-58, and 1961-66) and one in the Arizona State Senate (1967-69). While in the Arizona House of Representatives, she served as Chairman of the Highways and Transportation Committee and as Chairman of the Joint Senate and House Interim Transportation Committee. These committees introduced her to the inner workings and technical aspects of the State Highway Department, the Arizona Highway Patrol, railroad systems, interstate trucking, airport operators, and civil and military aviation. Isabel Burgess also served on the Board of Governors for the Council of State Governments and was a member of the National Legislative Transportation Committee.
In 1966, she became the first Republican woman elected to the Arizona State Senate. During her tenure, Isabel was Chairman of the Arizona State Senate Highway and Transportation Committee. As chairman, she oversaw all aspects of transportation in Arizona including highway construction and design; highway patrol; highway safety programs standards; truck, bus, and rail transportation; and airport design.
In 1969, Isabel Burgess was nominated by President Richard Nixon to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). At the time, there was considerable interest in nominating politicians and civil servants from varied backgrounds for federal appointments. Her record as chairman of the National Legislative Transportation Committee and the fact that she was a woman made her an ideal candidate. She attributed her successful appointment to the support of Senator Barry M. Goldwater and Representative John Rhodes.
As a member of the NTSB, Isabel Burgess was involved in many on-the-scene accident investigations and chaired several public hearings related to transportation accidents. These ranged from bus accidents and aviation crashes to vehicular collisions and car gas tank explosions. Overall, she conducted 17 investigations and was involved in 12 hearings. As a member of NTSB she traveled extensively both within the United States and abroad delivering speeches advocating transportation safety issues at numerous conferences sponsored by transportation companies, industry associations, and transportation specialists.
Each member of NTSB had an area of specialized interest. Mrs. Burgess worked primarily with aircraft cabin safety, security of galleys and galley equipment, proper jumpseats, improvement of interior emergency lighting materials, and evacuation slides. She was named "Outstanding Woman in the Field of Life Support" in 1971 by the Survival and Flight Equipment Association. She was also awarded honorary membership in the Flight Attendants Association in 1972. Mrs. Burgess was seen by many members of the flight industry as being an advocate for transportation safety, as is clearly documented in her correspondence. For additional related materials, view the McDermott Library General Aviation collection at the University of Texas at Dallas (http://www.utdallas.edu/library/uniquecoll/speccoll/hacpdf.htm).
Following her appointment to the NTSB, Mrs. Burgess worked as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Energy and Minerals in the Department of Interior from 1976 to 1977. She was responsible for developing and coordinating the Task Force on Availability of Federally Owned Mineral Land established by the Secretary of the Interior.
Mrs. Burgess retired from public service in January of 1977. She died September 17, 1999 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Scope and Content Note
This collection contains a variety of materials documenting Isabel Burgess's public and personal life, including her association with the Episcopal Church, awards, friends, travels, biographical files, work with the National Transportation Safety Board, and an oral history describing her time with the Heard Museum in Phoenix. This collection is arranged in seven series and alphabetically and chronologically within except as noted.
Among the subjects described in this collection are the death of stewardess Margareth Abraham in the crash of flight 980 near Saint Croix, the dedication of the Margareth Abraham Plaza, the DC-9 airplane wreckage near Boston, Massachusetts, the NTSB Midway A737 crash hearing, airline safety and professional associations related to the airline industry, hazardous materials, the Alaskan pipeline, U.S.-Russian conferences on transportation, hearings related to NTSB, and reports on the availability of mineral lands. Of particular note is Burgess's correspondence with such prominent individuals as Barry Goldwater and Sandra Day O'Connor.
Arrangement
This collection consists of thirty boxes divided into seven series:
To view this collection, make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or calling (480) 965-4932. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.
Copyright
The Arizona Board of Regents retains copyright to this collection for and on behalf of the Arizona State University Library. Requests to publish, display, or redistribute information from this collection must be submitted via our online application.
Susan (Burgess) Cordsen donated these materials to the Arizona Historical Foundation in 2000.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Isabel Burgess Papers, FM MSS 127, Arizona State University Library.
Provenance
The Arizona Historical Foundation transferred these materials to the Arizona Collection in 2012.
Processing Note
The original order of these materials is unknown. Folder titles reflect original folder labels. This collection was traditionally processed and weeded of duplicates and extraneous material not pertinent to Isabel Burgess. Because Burgess simultaneously kept multiple journals and photograph albums, some of these items overlap chronologically.